יצחק שמואל הלוי ברקוביץ Rabbi Yitzchak Berkovits ראש רשת הכוללים לינת הצדק Sanhedria HaMurchevet 113/27 סנהדרי’ה המורחבת Jerusalem, Israel 97707 113/27 ירושלם ת“ו 02-5813847 בס״ד ירושלם ת״ו י״ט באלול תשע״ה Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz zt”l would often repeat instructions he received from his rebbe Rav Yeruchum Levovitz, the mashgiach of Mir. “You will speak some day” said Rav Yeruchum, foretelling Rav Chaim’s lifelong career of harbatzas Torah u’Mussar. “You can speak divrei chachma about everything- everything but bitachon.” “When you speak of bitachon it should be d’varim pshutim only, without cheshbonos.” It is commonly understood that true bitachon is trust, which is a matter of relationship rather than intellectual investigation. The more one deals with bitachon from a philosophical perspective, the less his heart is really there. On the other hand, bitachon does not just happen. Without a rational framework one is clueless as to how to develop bitachon and just how to apply it to real life. Like the author observes, so many have a simplistic view of what bitachon is and very little actual bitachon when coping with the trials of daily living. Rabbi Goldberger’s Six Steps provide just such a framework. This sefer is not a discussion on the topic of bitachon. It is a practical program for turning us all into ba’alei bitachon. It reflects years of work on the part of the author in developing and disseminating the process of learning to trust HaShem. It also offers a sobering perspective on understanding one’s real needs -needs that we can count on HaShem to provide. This book is a must for so many who struggle with bitachon. I sincerely hope it will be well received among Jews on every level, and will bring bitachon and tranquility to the lives of many. May the author be zoche to continue to be mezakeh the rabbim with practical works to become greater ovdei HaShem and grow in their emunah and bitachon. בברכת כתיבה וחתימה טובה לכל בית ישראל, CONTENTS ] 7 יצחק שמואל הלוי ברקוביץ Rabbi Yitzchak Berkovits ראש רשת הכוללים לינת הצדק Sanhedria HaMurchevet 113/27 סנהדרי’ה המורחבת Jerusalem, Israel 97707 113/27 CONTENTS ירושלם ת“ו 02-5813847 בס״ד ירושלם ת״ו י״ט באלול תשע״ה Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz zt”l would often repeat instructions he received from his rebbe Rav Yeruchum ACKNOWLEDGMEnts .......................................................................9 Levovitz, the mashgiach of Mir. “You will speak some day” said Rav Yeruchum, foretelling Rav Chaim’s lifelong career of harbatzas Torah u’Mussar. “You can speak divrei chachma about everything- everything FOREWORD ........................................................................................13 but bitachon.” “When you speak of bitachon it should be d’varim pshutim only, without cheshbonos.” INTRODUCTION ................................................................................15 It is commonly understood that true bitachon is trust, which is a matter of relationship rather than intellectual investigation. The more one deals with bitachon from a philosophical perspective, the less his heart is really there. CHAPTER ONE: A World Sustained by God ......................................17 On the other hand, bitachon does not just happen. Without a rational framework one is clueless as CHAPTER TWO: Hashkatas Rucho v’Libo ..........................................22 to how to develop bitachon and just how to apply it to real life. Like the author observes, so many have a simplistic view of what bitachon is and very little actual bitachon when coping with the trials of daily living. CHAPTER THREE: Rabbi Goldberger’s Six Steps provide just such a framework. This sefer is not a discussion on the One of the Ten Commandments — But Which One? .......................28 topic of bitachon. It is a practical program for turning us all into ba’alei bitachon. It reflects years of work on the part of the author in developing and disseminating the process of learning to trust HaShem. It also offers CHAPTER FOUR: Bitachon: For Some or For Everyone? ..................32 a sobering perspective on understanding one’s real needs -needs that we can count on HaShem to provide. CHAPTER FIVE: The Six Steps ...........................................................36 This book is a must for so many who struggle with bitachon. I sincerely hope it will be well received The First Step — among Jews on every level, and will bring bitachon and tranquility to the lives of many. Is It My Most Immediate Upcoming Need? ............................37 May the author be zoche to continue to be mezakeh the rabbim with practical works to become greater ovdei HaShem and grow in their emunah and bitachon. The Second Step — Is It Really a Need? ..................................38 The Third Step — Do I Have Total Serenity That I Will Receive this Need? ........41 The Fourth Step — What Is the Most Effort I Would Exert to Provide This Need on My Own? .....................43 בברכת כתיבה וחתימה טובה לכל בית ישראל, The Fifth Step — How Much Effort Am I Actually Required to Do for God to Provide This Need? .......................44 The Sixth Step — What Are the Details of the Effort to Which I Have Just Committed Myself? ...................45 CONTENTS ] 7 CHAPTER SIX: Middah or Mitzvah? ...................................................47 CHAPTER SEVEN: Actual Bitachon Stories .......................................49 CHAPTER EIGHT: If Bitachon Works, Why Doesn’t Everybody Do It? .58 APPENDIX I: Beis Halevi on Parshas Mikketz ..................................62 APPENDIX II: A Sample Bitachon Dialogue .......................................64 ABOUT the AUthOR .......................................................................73 GLOSSARY ..........................................................................................75 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................79 DEDICATIONS ....................................................................................81 8 ] SIX STEPS OF BITACHON ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ] 9 CHAPTER ONE A World Sustained by God Return, soul, to your state of calm, for God has already provided all your needs. [Psalms 116:7] ne of Judaism’s most profound messages is that man has a heavenly Benefactor who provides him with sustenance. In O one form or another, we are told that God takes care of us and that He gives us everything we need. The message is beautiful — and true — yet, it doesn’t seem to match our day-to-day lives. From our earliest experiences with the world, we learn to believe we have to fight for our needs.W hether trying to hold our own among rival siblings, gain acceptance at school, or earn our livelihood in a competitive economy, we learn that meeting our needs A WORLD SUSTAINED BY GOD ] 17 is a function of staking out the battlefield, marshalling our resources, neutralizing our opponents, and continuously manipulating our environment in order to ensure not only our growth but our very survival. In many realms of human experience, especially in “making a living,” life seems very difficult. In fact, to many people life often seems like a difficult, stressful, and unending struggle. Does life need to be this way? How much different would life be if we were aware that all our needs were underwritten? What would our lives be like if we knew — really knew — that someone has so much confidence in us that he is willing to guarantee our basic living requirements in order that we would be free to develop our talents and natural energies to their maximum productivity? From the earliest description of God providing fig leaves for Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to the daily morning blessing, Baruch Ata Ad-noy Elo-einu Melech HaOlam She-asah Li Kol Tzorchi. Blessed are You, Hashem…who has taken care of all my needs. we discover constant references to a Creator who not only brought into existence the majesty of nature and the glory of human beings, but has undertaken to provide us all with everything we need for our comfortable and adequate maintenance, and continues to do so to this day. Psalm 104 describes how God “causes grass to sprout for the animals, and vegetation for the use of man.”1 It relates how “all look to Your hand with hope, to give their food in its time…You open Your hand that they may be sated with goodness.”2 In the Talmud, 1 Tehillim 104:14. 2 Ibid. 104:27–28. 18 ] SIX STEPS OF BITACHON A WORLD SUSTAINED BY GOD ] 19 Rav declares that every day, God sits and sustains the entire world, from aurochs’ horns to lice eggs.3 This observation is easily seen in the natural world, where a most remarkable chain of consumption provides each species with the food and other things it requires for its survival. From the microscopic plant and animal organisms, finding the perfect environment to provide them with nutrients, water, warmth, and oxygen, to the Nile Crocodile being provided with the Egyptian Plover, a special bird that flies into the reptile’s open mouth to pick out food remnants between its teeth and otherwise care for its dental needs, God has made nature a veritable theme park, displaying how the world is masterfully designed to provide sustenance and continuity to everything that has been created. That these results should be limited exclusively to the plant and animal realms is dramatically and amusingly dispelled in the following Talmudic Midrash: In all my life I have never seen a lion working as a porter, a deer as a farmer, or a fox as a storekeeper, and yet they never go without sustenance. And they were only created to serve me [a person]! How much more so should I find all my needs provided for, as I have been created to serve the Almighty!4 And yet, despite everything we are taught about God’s beneficence, our lives remain consumed with worries, anxieties, efforts, and toil — all focused on the securing of our daily needs. In a world created and sustained by God, this ought not to be. Interestingly, there was one unique period in Jewish history when God clearly provided everything “all by Himself.” For the entire duration of the Israelites’ forty-year sojourn in the desert, all their 3 Avoda Zara 3b.